Recent News

Coronavirus lockdown leading to drop in pollution across Europe

New data, based on observations from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite, are showing strong reductions in nitrogen dioxide concentrations over several major cities across Europe – including Paris, Madrid and Rome.

Airborne Nitrogen Dioxide Plummets Over China

NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) pollution monitoring satellites have detected significant decreases in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over China. There is evidence that the change is at least partly related to the economic slowdown following the outbreak of coronavirus.

Air pollution is triggering diabetes in 3.2 million people each year

Air pollution caused 3.2 million new cases of diabetes worldwide in 2016, according to a new estimate. Fine particulate matter, belched out by cars and factories and generated through chemical reactions in the atmosphere, hang around as haze and make air hard to breathe. Air pollution has been linked to chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes (SN: 9/30/17, p. 18), but this study is one of the first attempts to quantify the connection for diabetes.

Every Breath You Take: Who Is Monitoring Air Quality in Kenya?

“Is that air you’re breathing now?” Morpheus asks Neo in the 1990s cult classic, The Matrix. The same question could be asked of millions of Kenyans for whom the quality of what they inhale on a daily basis has for too long been taken for granted.

Estimated Changes in Sulfur Dioxide from 1980 to 2015

Reconstructed Sulfur Dioxide Levels (1980-2015)

Fioletov et al. (2017) used Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite measurements of vertical column densities (VCD: the total number of molecules per unit area) of sulfur dioxide, a criteria air pollutant, to establish a link between reported sulfur dioxide emissions, OMI sulfur dioxide VCDs measured by satellites, and surface sulfur dioxide concentration measurements. They then estimated annual mean sulfur dioxide VCD distributions (as shown in animation), based on reported point-source emissions for the period 1980–2015, as would have been seen by OMI.

Sulfur Dioxide in the US, 2005-2016

President Obama Explains How Pollution Affects Our Planet

President Barack Obama joins DNews to discuss how NASA mapped pollution from space and what it means for our future. Watch the video here or find out more at https://www.youtube.com.

Air Quality from Space in the News!

CNN: Which are the most polluted countries in the world?
The BBC: Aura mission tracks global pollutant trends
The Huffington Post: Air Pollution Growing In India, China: NASA

Changes in Nitrogen Dioxide in the USA, 2005-2016

The animation shows the changes in OMI NO₂ levels from 2005 to 2016 over the Untied States. The large decreases (20-50%) are associated with the implementation of state and federal regulations to reduce NO_x emissions from power plants and cars. The only areas of increases occurred over areas of oil and natural gas (ONG) extraction activities in North Dakota and Texas. For images over ONG areas, click here.

Before and After: World Nitrogen Dioxide Levels, 2005-2016

These global maps show NO₂ levels in the atmosphere as detected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard the Aura satellite, averaged over 2005 and 2014, respectively.

Global Air Quality Press Conference, AGU 2015

Air pollution’s rise and fall is a hallmark of industrialization, economic activity, and even civil unrest – and it can have far reaching effects on human health and the environment. Now, NASA has produced the first high-resolution global map of air quality. In this briefing, scientists will discuss the evolving human impact.

Watch the video

Human Fingerprint on Global Air Quality

This video provides an overview of the study findings. For more information, read the full story on nasa.gov. To download a copy, please visit the release on the NASA GSFC Scientific and Visualization Studio website. Click here to read a transcript of the video.

November 30, 2015: Beijing Air Quality Index (AQI) Reaches 611

Beijing's AQI reached an incredible level of 611. Levels above 500 are simply referred to as being "beyond scale".

Washington Post story

A Tale of Three Cities: Beijing, Los Angeles and Atlanta

In February 2015, Bryan Duncan (NASA scientist) gave a Ted-style talk on air quality as seen from space. You can also view the video on the main NASA website.

Hell with the Lid Taken Off

During the first half of the twentieth century, coal burning at power plants, factories, and homes filled the air over the Midwestern U.S. with pollution. “Smoke”—as air pollution was usually called—used to occasionally block so much sunlight that people were forced to carry lamps in the middle of the day.

Before and After: Ohio Valley 2005-2011

The impact of technology to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants is apparent in satellite imagery, which shows the signal of pollution blink out over time. Still, while air quality is improving, power plant emissions of carbon dioxide – a greenhouse gas – remain an issue.

Before and After: US East Coast 2005-2011

Pollution builds up along the U.S. East Coast as it passes from one city to the next, particularly in the Northeast Corridor. These cities include Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston and all the smaller cities in between. Some of the largest absolute changes in nitrogen dioxide have occurred in this corridor.

United States Air Quality Improvement, 2005-2011

Nitrogen dioxide pollution, averaged yearly from 2005-2011, has decreased across the United States.
Image Credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio/T. Schindler.

See the Full Sized Animation

Air pollution: Are Indian cities better off than the West?

A NASA study finds low levels of a major pollutant over Indian cities. But the window of opportunity is closing fast (Hindustan times/livemint).

Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, at NASA GSFC.

Indian cities less NO2 polluted than other major global counterparts

NASA scientists have used satellite observations to measure air pollution's dependence on population in four of the planet's major air pollution regions: the United States, Europe, China and India.

Image Credit: the SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE.

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